.<\/p>\n
I like to think\u00a0 that in everyday life, I\u2019m an easy going tolerant kind of person , but when it comes to books, \u00a0I can get incandescent with rage if I don\u2019t like what I\u2019m reading. I had to be physically restrained when I\u00a0 took \u00a0The Da Vinci Code on a long plane journey, some time before it became a best seller. I still think it\u2019s the worst book I have ever read. But there are plenty of other things in other books that can turn me into a screaming harpy. \u00a0Here are a few of my unfavourite things:<\/p>\n
1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When a character\u2019s appearance\u00a0 is described by having that character looking into a mirror and listing the results; she peered into the glass and saw a pair of sparkling, almond-shaped eyes, with a tip-tilted nose lightly dusted with freckles, and a half-open pair of very\u00a0 pink lips\u2026<\/i>\u00a0 No, please. ..<\/p>\n
2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Talking about description, enumerating every chair, every table and bookshelf and jam jar in \u00a0a room, every tree , every blade of grass and every spider on a hill. Wuthering Heights has almost no description in it, and yet the reader comes away with\u00a0the most \u00a0vivid sense of desolate moor, wind-blown thorns and thundery clouds. In description, less is definitely more.<\/p>\n
3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And I have a perhaps irrational prejudice against characters, usually teenage or younger, who Want To Be A Writer when they grow up. Too often, I think, this is an excuse for sloppy writing, so the character can be more sensitive and more observant than they\u2019d be otherwise.\u00a0( I annoy my book group by giving vent to this prejudice every time the subject arises, which\u00a0 seems to be quite often.) \u00a0I was a child who Wanted To Be A Writer, and I don\u2019t think it made me any more sensitive and observant \u2013 quite the contrary, I think.<\/p>\n
4)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And another thing I have a prejudice against, \u00a0that maybe doesn\u2019t quite stand up to scrutiny, is\u00a0a character who makes him or herself a lovingly described cup of instant coffee, as though this is some sort of significant ritual. Carefully, she spooned the fragrant\u00a0granules into her favourite blue mug, watching their brown waterfall, and musing as she smelled the rich aroma, about how much she hated Jerome. As she poured on boiling water and saw the granules dissolve into a sweet-scented dark brew, she decided to herself that, yes, tomorrow, she would leave him\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n
5)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Following on from people who decide \u2018to themselves\u2019, (yes, I\u2019ve probably been guilty of that one- but who else can you decide to?) characters who \u2018shake themselves inwardly\u2019 or \u2018give an inward shudder\u2019.<\/p>\n
6)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And now , the grammar policewoman:<\/p>\n
Any writer worth\u00a0her salt should know that \u2018disinterested\u2019 does NOT mean \u2018not interested.\u2019 \u00a0\u2018Not interested\u2019 means \u2018not interested\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018He was sat on his chair\u2019\u00a0\u00a0 \u2018I was laying on my bed\u2026\u2019 It\u2019s probably unusually naive of me, but for years I didn\u2019t really understand what Bob Dylan meant by \u2018Lay, lady, lay.\u2019 I couldn\u2019t quite work out what he was asking her to do, though I realised it was nothing to do with eggs. Still, I guess it makes a much better title than \u2018Lie down, lady, lie down\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n
Well, that’s probably enough grumbling for now.\u00a0 But I’d love to hear about some of the things that turn you into grumbly readers too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
. I like to think\u00a0 that in everyday life, I\u2019m an easy going tolerant kind of person , but when it comes to books, \u00a0I can get incandescent with rage if I don\u2019t like what I\u2019m reading. I had to be physically restrained when I\u00a0 took \u00a0The Da Vinci Code on a long plane journey, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/francesthomas.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/francesthomas.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/francesthomas.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francesthomas.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francesthomas.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=275"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/francesthomas.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":279,"href":"https:\/\/francesthomas.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275\/revisions\/279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/francesthomas.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francesthomas.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francesthomas.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}